Barcelona GP2 test day two: dâ€™Ambrosio breaks Maldonado domination

DAMS Racer Jerome d'Ambrosio finished the second day of the final GP2 pre-season test on top having set the day's fastest time during the morning session.

As in previous years, the best time to set a day topping time at Barcelona is during the morning, something which Belgium racer d'Ambrosio did amid chaos on track with the session stopped seven times in three hours.

The order of the red flags was as follows:

Jules Bianchi at turn four nine minutes in.

Adrian Zaugg

Vladimir Arabadzhiev spun at turn seven on the two hour mark.

Dani Clos, twenty minutes after Arabadzhiev. Stopped near turn five.

Rodolfo Gonzalez lost control at turn six.

Giacomo Ricci six minutes after Gonzalez. Spun at turn five.

Max Chilton stopped at turn four.

In between all of the stoppages to recover the stricken GP2 machinery, d'Ambrosio set the session topping time of 1:27.182s, beating the flying German rookie Christian Vietoris and form driver Pastor Maldonado.

Ocean Racing Technology saw their Swiss driver Fabio Leimer set the fourth fastest time of the session, ahead of Bianchi, Sam Bird and Clos. Brazilian Luiz Razia finished the morning in eighth, ahead of Ricci and Charles Pic.

Morning session results:

Position

Name

Nationality

Team

Time AM

1

Jerome D’Ambrosio

BEL

DAMS

1:27.182s

2

Christian Vietoris

GER

Racing Engineering

1:27.262s

3

Pastor Maldonado

VEN

Rapax

1:27.296s

4

Fabio Leimer

SUI

Ocean Racing Technology

1:27.402s

5

Jules Bianchi

FRA

ART Grand Prix

1:27.471s

6

Sam Bird

GBR

ART Grand Prix

1:27.539s

7

Dani Clos

ESP

Racing Engineering

1:27.603s

8

Luiz Razia

BRA

Rapax

1:27.635s

9

Giacomo Ricci

ITA

DPR

1:27.671s

10

Charles Pic

FRA

Arden International

1:27.845s

11

Davide Valsecchi

ITA

iSport International

1:27.903s

12

Oliver Turvey

GBR

iSport International

1:27.910s

13

Giedo Van Der Garde

NED

Barwa Addax Team

1:27.979s

14

Alberto Valerio

BRA

Scuderia Coloni

1:28.048s

15

Josef Kral

CZE

Super Nova Racing

1:28.241s

16

Adrian Zaugg

RSA

Trident Racing

1:28.408s

17

Sergio Perez

MEX

Barwa Addax Team

1:28.443s

18

Michael Herck

ROU

DPR

1:28.446s

19

Marcus Ericsson

SWE

Super Nova Racing

1:28.537s

20

Vladimir Arabadzhiev

BUL

Scuderia Coloni

1:28.642s

21

Johnny Cecotto

VEN

Trident Racing

1:28.687s

22

Ho-Pin Tung

CHN

DAMS

1:28.964s

23

Rodolfo Gonzalez

VEN

Arden International

1:29.001s

24

Max Chilton

GBR

Ocean Racing Technology

1:29.288s

The afternoon session calmed down and only saw one red flag for Marcus Ericsson who collided with the barriers at the chicane and had to sit out the rest of the session.

On track, Ocean Racing Technology had their driver Leimer top of the timings until the final ten minutes, when the times started to tumble and Pastor Maldonado continued his impressive run of topping afternoon sessions – this was his fifth afternoon on the trot that the Rapax driver topped.

Behind Maldonado, Belgian d'Ambrosio finished the day four hundreds of a second slower than the Venezuelan driver, with Leimer confirming his strong day with the third fastest time of the session.

Sergio Perez finished the afternoon with the fourth fastest time, ahead of the inform Vietoris, Razia, Davide Valsecchi, Pic, Clos and Valsecchi's iSport International team mate, Oliver Turvey.